Author: Gary Hilson

CXL Efforts Focus on Memory Expansion [Byline]

/ Gary Hilson

An initial promise of the Compute Express Link (CXL) protocol was to put idled, orphaned memory to good use, but as the standard evolved to its third iteration, recent product offerings have been focused on memory expansion.

SMART Modular Technologies recently unveiled its new family of CXL-enabled add-in cards (AICs), which support industry standard DDR5 DIMMs with 4-DIMM and 8-DIMM options. The AICs allow up to 4TB of memory to be added to servers in the data center. The company has spent the last year putting together these products with the aim of making them plug and play.

SMART Modular’s AICs are built using CXL controllers to eliminate memory bandwidth bottlenecks and capacity constraints and aimed at enabling compute-intensive workloads like AI, machine learning (ML) and high-performance computing (HPC) uses—all of which need larger amounts of high-speed memory that outpace what current servers can accommodate.

The introduction of SMART Modular’s AICs comes at a time where the company is seeing two basic needs emerging, with the near-term one being a “compute memory performance capacity gap.”

The other trend is memory disaggregation. The problem with memory disaggregation has been lack of standards. CXL helps with that, and then networking technology has improved significantly.

CXL overcomes the need to add more CPUs in a server environment, which is an expensive path to adding performance. The idea with SMART Modular’s AICs is that they can be in an off-the-shelf server.

Micron Technology is another early CXL mover, and its CXL CZ120 memory expansion module speaks to the trend toward adding more memory into a server to meet the demands of AI workloads rather than overprovision GPUs.

The company first introduced its CXL CZ120 memory expansion modules in August 2023, and now the module has hit a key qualification sample milestone. The CZ120 has undergone substantial hardware testing for reliability, quality, and performance across CPU providers and OEMs, as well software testing for compatibility and compliance with operating system and hypervisor vendors.

Read the full story on EE Times.

Gary Hilson is a freelance writer with a focus on B2B technology, including information technology, cybersecurity, and semiconductors.

Canadian University Augments Solar Panels to Improve Output [Byline]

/ Gary Hilson

Researchers in Canada’s national capital have devised a smart approach to optimize the effectiveness of solar panels by enhancing them with artificial ground reflectors.

The University of Ottawa’s SUNLAB collaborated with the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) in Golden, Colorado, to study how reflective ground covers affect solar energy output.

The research found that placing reflective surfaces under solar panels can increase their energy output by up to 4.5%. It involved pairing high ground reflectivity with bifacial solar modules, paired with high ground reflectivity.

Solar power can be some of the cheapest power in the world, especially in sun drenched regions, such as Saudi Arabia or Quatar. But other countries like the United States and Canada have different weather patterns.

The research findings are particularly significant in Canada, where snow cover persists for three to four months of the year in major cities like Ottawa and Toronto, and 65% of the country’s vast landmass experiences snow cover for over half the year. Additionally, given that approximately 4% of the world’s land areas are classified as sandy deserts, this finding has global applications.

The efficiency of most solar panels ranges from 20% to 25%, and panel materials have evolved in the last five to 10 years from aluminum back surface field to passivated emitter and rear contact (PERC), which is much more efficient with only minor changes to the manufacturing process.

PERC cells can be made bifacial more easily, which has facilitated the production of bifacial modules globally.

The SUNLAB study at NREL site looked at the effect of high albedo (70% reflective) artificial reflectors on single-axis-tracked bifacial photovoltaic systems through ray-trace modeling and field measurements. The researchers tested a range of reflector configurations by varying reflector size and placement and demonstrated that reflectors increased daily energy yield up to 6.2% relative to natural albedo for PERC modules.

Read my full story for EE Times.

Gary Hilson is a freelance writer with a focus on B2B technology, including information technology, cybersecurity, and semiconductors.

4DS Plots ReRAM Roadmap [Byline]

/ Gary Hilson

4DS Memory Limited has broken its radio silence to lay out its go-forward plans for its Resistive RAM (ReRAM) technology.

The company said its interface switching capabilities based on PCMO (Praseodymium, Calcium, Manganese, Oxygen) delivers significant advantages over other filamentary ReRAM technologies, making its high-bandwidth, high-endurance persistent memory suitable for AI, big data and neural net applications.

4DS’ ReRAM requires no refresh within its persistence window and can be “refreshed” within the DRAM operating window, which makes it able provide high bandwidth and high endurance while using less energy.

He said the company’s roadmap includes a development agreement with Belgium-based imec for a 20-nm Mb chip with 1.6B elements to be run at imec in 2024.

4DS’ use of PCMO makes its ReRAM different from other ReRAM makers, in that the switching mechanism is based on the interface characteristics of the cell—the entire interface area is involved in the switching. Other ReRAM makers use a filamentary wire, which proves long cell retention.

In PCMO ReRAM, oxygen ions are moved in and out of the cell by the electric field pulse. When this oxygen is present, the cell conducts, and it is said to be SET. When the oxygen is removed, the current path is lost, and it is said to be RESET.

A key advantage of 4DS’ PCMO-based interface is that the pulse response is very fast, and endurance is higher.

4DS is focused on two goals this year: It’s continuing to work with imec to fab out a 20-nm cell to make it competitive with other ReRAM technologies, and the company sees no point in waiting to strike potential partnerships and start new application discussions.

Using praseodymium is a unique choice by 4DS, and the company could encounter issues getting a praseodymium-based process to a maturity level that will allow it to be put into mass production and drive out the costs.

There are a few ReRAM devices available at present for special applications, with Fujitsu Semiconductor and Renesas offering standalone products.

Weebit Nano began working to commercialize SiOx ReRAM technology developed by Rice University, with the goal of avoiding troubles other technologies had by using materials that would not create issues in a standard CMOS logic fab, such as silver or magnetic materials. The company has advanced its technology several new generations and is no longer purely SiOx. In early 2020, Weebit Nano said it was looking to ramp up its discrete ReRAM efforts based on customer demand.

Read the full story for EE Times.

Gary Hilson is a freelance writer with a focus on B2B technology, including information technology, cybersecurity, and semiconductors.

GDDR7 Adds Headroom to Meet AI Pressures [Byline]

/ Gary Hilson

Recent advances in artificial intelligence may appear revolutionary, but JEDEC is keeping an evolutionary approach for Graphics Double Data Rate (GDDR) standards, even as it’s being increasingly used for AI applications.

The JEDEC Solid State Technology Association’s GDDR7 standard continues the generation-to-generation tradition of double the bandwidth and double the capacity while keeping a lid on power consumption.

The latest iteration of GDDR offers twice the bandwidth of its predecessor, reaching up to 192 GB/s per device. GDDR7 doubles the number of independent channels, from two in GDDR6 to four.

It’s also the first JEDEC standard DRAM to use the pulse-amplitude modulation (PAM) interface for high-frequency operations. Using a PAM3 interface improves the signal-to-noise ratio for high-frequency operation while enhancing energy efficiency. PAM3 also offers a higher data transmission rate per cycle, resulting in improved performance versus the traditional non-return-to-zero (NRZ) interface.

GDDR7 addresses the industry’s need for reliability, availability and serviceability (RAS) by incorporating the latest data integrity features, including on-die error-correction coding with real-time reporting, data poison, Error check and Scrub, and command address parity with command blocking (CAPARBLK).

With companies like Micron Technology selling out of HBM3, GDDR can be a viable alternative for some AI workloads, and AI demands are shaping the evolution of GDDR. One of the reasons GDDR has found uses beyond its initial target market is its ability to do matrix algebra, which helps GPUs handle AI workloads and computer-generated special effects.

GPU maker Nvidia wanted a faster, more reliable memory—hence, the adoption of PAM, as transmitting data at super-fast rates means channel integrity becomes a bigger concern.

Read my full story for EE Times.

Gary Hilson is a freelance writer with a focus on B2B technology, including information technology, cybersecurity, and semiconductors.

Texas Chip Companies Pivot to Leverage Apprenticeships [Bylines]

/ Gary Hilson

Chip companies expanding their footprint in Texas must change how they approach talent intake as the semiconductor industry circles back to leveraging apprenticeships. They also educate the broader workforce on the opportunities available and how the industry underpins people’s daily lives.

In the second of two panel discussions hosted by the National Institute of Innovation and Technology (NIIT), semiconductor companies growing their footprint in Texas are transforming their culture to focus on skills over experience and allow for different types of apprenticeships.

ManpowerGroup understands the realities of the talent market, and thousands of people come into its offices daily trying to figure out their career paths. It has greatly leveraged NIIT to help people migrate from a manufacturing job to one in semiconductors through emerging apprenticeship programs.

Many companies hire full-time employees from contingent labor—it’s a massive avenue for people to get hired by corporations. A notable shift for ManpowerGroup as it supports semiconductor and advanced manufacturing companies is hiring for skills rather than just experience.

Another new challenge is that chip companies are no longer just competing with each other for talent—other sectors, such as automotive and other technology companies, want the same skillsets. Applied Materials, which collaborates with staffing companies like ManpowerGroup, must now compete with household brand names, and a registered apprentice program was part of the solution by offering more flexible pathways to improve the talent pool.

Flexibility is beneficial for other companies operating in Texas, such as NXP Semiconductors, which is upscaling its current workforce thanks to the work of schools like Austin Community College District, which takes on the group sponsorship aspect by handling monitoring and reporting on apprenticeship progress, as well as collaboration with NIIT and regional workforce development organizations.

GlobalFoundries, meanwhile has developed a unified competency model that led to a talent hub, which was a relatively new skill for the company, but it now has several hundred apprentices across its two U.S. fabs.

Read my full story for EE Times.

Gary Hilson is a freelance writer with a focus on B2B technology, including information technology, cybersecurity, and semiconductors.

Smarter MCUs Keep AI at the Edge [Byline]

/ Gary Hilson

As the edge gets smarter, the challenge becomes increasing machine learning (ML) and inference without spiking power consumption—microcontrollers (MCUs) optimized for edge AI applications are important pieces of the puzzle.

Infineon Technologies’ PSOC Edge MCU series is aimed at developers looking to bring new ML-enabled internet of things, consumer and industrial applications to market. The E81, E83 and E84 options focus on usability.

The PSOC MCU series has an Arm Cortex-M55 architecture, which is augmented with Helium DSP support alongside Arm Ethos-U55 and Cortex-M33. All of this is integrated with Infineon’s proprietary hardware accelerator, NNLite, which is designed for neural network acceleration.

At the high end of the series, the E84 is aimed at graphics-enabled applications, such as fitness wearables, high-end smart thermostats or smart locks, allowing more ML to be done on-chip. Many applications are sensor-based to support anomaly detection and predictive maintenance in industrial settings, as well as to detect people when they walk into the room for security or environmental control purposes.

Like Infineon, Ambiq is looking to make the edge smarter without consuming more power. It recently launched the Apollo510, the first in its Apollo5 SoC series, to support endpoint AI, including speech, vision, health and industrial AI models, on battery-powered devices.

Apollo510’s hardware and software use the Arm Cortex-M55 CPU with Arm Helium to reach processing speeds up to 250 MHz and achieve up to 10× better latency than its predecessor, the Apollo4. Like Infineon, Ambiq is eyeing energy efficiency to support sophisticated speech, vision, health and industrial AI models on battery-powered devices.

The introduction of new MCUs to support edge AI comes at a time when generative AI (GenAI) is getting most of the attention, despite representing a small percentage of AI that’s being deployed.

Read my full story for EE Times.

Gary Hilson is a freelance writer with a focus on B2B technology, including information technology, cybersecurity, and semiconductors.

Apprenticeships Aim to Meet Texas Chip Sector Talent Demands [Byline]

/ Gary Hilson

The graying of the semiconductor workforce as onshore manufacturing ramps up means the days of chip companies poaching each other’s talent are numbered—their local communities must develop talent through the collaboration of schools and workforce development organizations.

In the first of two panel discussions hosted by the National Institute of Innovation and Technology (NIIT), those collaborating to help build the talent pipeline for Texas’s semiconductor and advanced manufacturing sectors said they are working to deliver flexible options for apprenticeships to meet the demand for skilled workers with options that allow apprentices to earn a living while learning.

Austin Community College District has been collaborating with workforce development organizations and semiconductor companies to create entry pathways at various points and equip students with the right skills, especially in manufacturing.

Austin Community College District is increasingly giving tours to middle school students to expose them early to programs that will set them on a career path in semiconductors and advanced manufacturing.

The college’s Make It Center provides guests of all ages a chance to experience a wide range of experiences to pique their interest in advanced manufacturing careers, including an area dubbed “The Forge,” where they can use 3D printing, laser cutters and vacuum formers to create career-related projects. There are also virtual-reality simulations that allow users to “try out” different careers by immersing themselves in various job sites.

Read my full story on EE Times.

Gary Hilson is a freelance writer with a focus on B2B technology, including information technology, cybersecurity, and semiconductors.

HPC pushes quantum computing capabilities forward [Byline]

/ Gary Hilson

If you’re placing bets on whether quantum computing or high-performance computing (HPC) will come up on top, the answer is both.

Comparing the two is akin to comparing apples and oranges – each has its own strengths, and these strengths dictate what problems you should throw at them. Even if the best choice is a quantum computer, it’s going to need an HPC to work effectively.

Many algorithms, such as Shor’s algorithm, would take a million years on a supercomputer no matter how advanced it was. Because of its nature, a quantum computer is better suited for cryptography, which is a key driver of government interest – it has the potential to break existing encryption. Other domains that have a keen interest in quantum computing capabilities are chemistry, materials research, and Wall Street to chart finance scenarios.

At the heart of quantum computing hardware is a qubit chip. Qubits are very fragile, and they lose their information very quickly. This loss can occur within microseconds, and that is why a classical HPC is complementary to a quantum system – a traditional supercomputer is required to do the necessary error correction.

Some problems are naturally quantum problems, such as chemistry, and not all problems are one or the other – parts of a difficult application might be farmed out to a quantum computer while others are best solved by a classical supercomputer. A quantum computer can be viewed as an accelerator of an HPC system.

Universities play a key role in helping to develop quantum computing technologies. An interdisciplinary team at UMass Amherst is responsible for designing the infrastructure to support future city-scale quantum networks, one of four core thrust areas overseen by the National Science Foundation’s Center for Quantum Networks.

Both Intel and IBM are collaborating with universities to advance quantum computing. More than 100 institutions are members of the IBM Quantum Network, including Cern, and several have dedicated systems.

Read my full story for Fierce Electronics.

Gary Hilson is a freelance writer with a focus on B2B technology, including information technology, cybersecurity, and semiconductors.

Vinyl Vibes: An a-ha! Moment; Beyond ABBA

/ Gary Hilson

My vinyl collection expanded quite a bit during Covid lockdowns and restrictions – the money I would normally spend locally on beer and a burger or going out of town was redirected to buying records or LEGO.

At the start of the year, I decided I would listen through my collection alphabetically, but only sort of. Rather than going through all the A artists first, followed by B and so on, I’m listening to a single album in A, then B, then C and so forth, until I get through the entire alphabet – then I will start over. This means I won’t be listening to only one artist for albums at a time (I own every ABBA album released on vinyl and tend to be a completist when collecting music from artists I like).

My alphabetic listen-through is contained to my rock/pop albums, although I might throw a movie soundtrack into the mix, and maybe even some jazz.

a-ha – Hunting High and Low: Everyone knows “Take on Me,” but this album is more than a one hit wonder. The first five tracks on side one are all quite good and show the band’s range. Side 2 starts with the excellent “The Sun Always Shines on TV,” although the last two or three tracks are somewhat forgettable.

The Bangles – All Over the Place: This doesn’t have the high profile hit singles the band is most known for such as “Manic Monday” or “Eternal Flame,” but it’s a solid debut album. This band was the soundtrack for anyone who grew up in the 80s.

Neko Case: Fox Confessor Brings the Flood: This is the only Neko Case album I own on vinyl which makes no sense because I love her voice, lyrics, and melodies – the rest of her work I only own digitally.

Def Lepard – Hysteria: I’m old enough to remember slow dancing to “Love Bites” in high school. It and “Pour Some Sugar On Me” are the only two notable tracks on this album which is probably why I was able to pick it up for less than $10. When I posted this evaluation on Facebook, I got quite a lot of push back, with folks pointing out there were other singles from the album as well as other tracks they thought we pretty good. I think I need to give this album another listen.

Kathleen Edwards – Failer: I saw Kathleen Edwards play the Mod Club while promoting her third album, which I quite like. It was one of the best live performances I’d seen. This remastered first record for vinyl is a solid debut album, and recently released as Edwards returned to her a music career should put on hold for a while. I hope her other albums get the vinyl treatment, and that Edwards will produce some new music.

Agnetha Faltskog – Wrap Your Arms Around Me: The women of ABBA both had solo careers after the group split up. This was the only one I heard when it came out. It was a solid album with good singles although every track is basically about falling in love or a failed romance. The sound wasn’t that far from ABBA itself.

Gary Hilson is a freelance writer with a focus on B2B technology, including information technology, cybersecurity, and semiconductors.

AI-Driven HBM Uptake Is Power-Sensitive [Byline]

/ Gary Hilson

High-bandwidth memory (HBM) has become the artificial-intelligence memory of choice, and as HBM3 goes into volume production, more attention is being paid to power consumption in the wake of 2023’s generative AI boom.

The increasing demand for memory bandwidth from AI is directly correlated to increasing HBM bandwidth.Performance needs, memory bandwidth and memory sizes are growing exponentially, putting higher expectations and pressure on the next generation of HBM.

While bandwidth per watt as it relates to HBM is not particularly new, he said, energy consumption by data centers has been on the rise. These rapidly increasing power costs mean that bandwidth per watt is becoming a more important metric for enterprises who need to monitor operational costs—even more so with the increasing focus on sustainability initiatives.

The high costs associated with HBM and the price tag of the memory itself means the total cost of ownership becomes the deciding factor when determining if this uber-power memory is necessary for application. The process for customers to decide which memory they need starts with technical requirements like density, performance and power.

Read my full story for EE Times.

Gary Hilson is a freelance writer with a focus on B2B technology, including information technology, cybersecurity, and semiconductors.